BEMIDJI — As the hours counted down towards 4 o’clock on July 6, the scene around the Red Pine Estates in Bemidji became more and more hectic.
Volunteers worked tirelessly to move out furniture and belongings as organizers desperately tried to find accommodations for the displaced residents at local hotels.
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Less than a week earlier the 47 people who called the apartments home were ordered to vacate the building after structural concerns were found that put into question its safety.
While everyone was successfully moved out of the building on time, volunteers, residents and others on the ground have expressed frustration with how events unfolded and what they see as a lack of an effective response to the crisis.
“It was chaotic,” shared Sandy Hennum, who works with the Headwaters Regional Development Commission. “If there was a plan I don’t think it was communicated effectively to the people on the ground. I don’t think anybody knew who was in charge.”
Hennum stepped up to help volunteers with her expertise in housing, alongside other service providers, businesses and community members.
“The agencies and entities that should have stepped up, that should have been doing their jobs weren’t there,” said Cindy Tesar, one of the effort’s primary volunteers. “I didn’t see any other option but to help — somebody had to.”
Now, thanks to those volunteers and community efforts, nearly all of the 47 residents have found somewhere to stay. Thirteen remain in hotels, with some expecting to move into apartments on Sept. 1.
But this isn’t a perfectly happy ending, Hennum explained. Many of the residents, most of whom are elderly and have lived their entire lives in Bemidji, have had to move outside of the community to find housing.
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“What’s happened is there are people who have lived their life here who have no other option but to leave,” Hennum said. “To have to tell them ‘We don’t have any housing for you so you have to move away from everything you know and love,’ it’s heartbreaking.”
There are also still questions about how the response could have been improved and what steps need to be taken to prevent a similar crisis in the future.
The response
The city was first made aware of the concerns related to the building on June 26. Someone brought the issue to the city’s attention after a portion of drywall was removed and made the underlying structure visible.
“The first question was, ‘Do we need to immediately get (residents) out that day,’” explained Katie Nolting, Bemidji’s city attorney. “(The city’s building official Todd Beito) made the decision that it wasn't immediate, but we had to get them out soon.”
Beito took into account the opinions of two separate structural engineers who examined the building, hired by Schuett Companies who own the complex, before making his ultimate decision on June 29. The city drafted a letter to Schuett Companies requiring that the building be vacated by 4 p.m. on July 6.
In a meeting on June 30, Tom Schuett communicated the order to the residents who now had just six days to try and find alternate accommodations.
“Nobody enjoys seeing people displaced on such short notice,” shared Mayor Jorge Prince. “You’re weighing safety against the knowledge that people will be displaced. Neither of those is a great option, but as a city we have an obligation to err on the side of safety.”
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The initial plan requested by the city was to move the tenants out in an orderly fashion, with each individual only bringing what they needed and leaving the rest behind.
“The plan was that the owner was going to work with the tenants to get them out in scheduled increments,” explained City Clerk Michelle Miller, who is acting as city manager while the position remains vacant. “The intent was for them to take themselves, important documents, medication, clothing, things they would immediately need.”
As events proceeded, however, the plan fell by the wayside. Residents were in shock, worried about the safety of their belongings and stressed as they tried to find anywhere to go to avoid becoming homeless.
While a list of housing resources and services providers was included in a letter given to them by Schuett, residents had trouble contacting the organizations over the Fourth of July holiday weekend and struggled to navigate the systems without guidance.
Hearing about their plight, volunteers began to connect with residents and rally the community. Efforts began to move the residents out of their apartments, furniture and all, and coordinate hotel rooms for those who couldn’t find anywhere else to stay.
“Once we realized (the volunteers) were there we wanted to support them as best we could, but also keep everyone safe,” Nolting said.
Volunteers adjusted to moving out one apartment at a time once they learned about the concerns regarding structural integrity. They were frustrated, however, by a perceived lack of communication from both the city and Beltrami County that left themselves and the residents feeling abandoned.
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Conversations and planning that happened between the city, county and other entities didn’t reach many of those working on the ground, leaving them to plan on their own and try to coordinate aid.
“Communication was the biggest challenge,” Hennum shared. “If everyone had one plan they were working off of it would have been a lot more efficient and a lot less traumatic for the tenants.”
Other limitations were legal in nature.
“We (as the city) do want to help, but we have no legal authority that would allow us to use taxpayer funds to pay for hotel rooms or food for the individuals at Red Pine,” Nolting explained.
Instead, the funds to support the residents have come from community donations. Hennum shared that over $100,000 has been donated by the public to support the displaced tenants. Beltrami County, which does have the authority to use funds for situations like this, also donated $48,500 to help residents.
Where to go from here
Hennum and Tesar hope that the crisis at Red Pine can hold lessons, both on how to prevent similar situations from occurring and on how to respond if they do.
“We can’t fix anything in our community unless we acknowledge where the problems are,” Tesar said.
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For Tesar that means having an after-action review, where different entities can get together and discuss how the situation was handled and what could have been done differently with a focus on the future.
“One of the things we keep asking for is if we can get everybody together, Beltrami County, HRDC, Housing Redevelopment Authorities, the city of Bemidji,” Tesar explained. “We all need to get together so we can go through what things went wrong and where things need to be different.”
For the city’s part, it's also interested in learning from the experience.
“We’re going to take what we learned and try to apply it to other things, and hopefully we never have this situation again,” Nolting said. “I think that’s everyone’s goal.”
The city is examining multiple potential ways forward, including how to catch structural issues before they become severe, creating emergency response plans, and investing in affordable housing in Bemidji.
Currently, rental inspections primarily look at compliance with the rental ordinance, and structural issues could be missed. The city hopes to look at how early signs of structural fatigue can be caught, but in the meantime encourages residents to reach out to the city if they have a concern.
“It doesn’t have to be a renter, anyone who has a concern we would rather you let us know so we can check it out and it be nothing than someone doesn’t tell us and it’s something,” Nolting said. “So I would say don’t hesitate to call.”
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Under state statute the identity of the individual who raises a concern is protected so there’s no fear of retaliation from a potential scorned landlord.
As for an improved response plan, Nolting expressed hope that something could be developed for smaller-scale or otherwise unique emergencies that don’t fit under existing emergency management plans.
“A lot of the time it’s the county that takes over for emergency management, and it’s usually a lot bigger, like tornados,” Nolting explained. “You would think that something like this would fall under those emergency management plans, but unfortunately they just don’t.”
Hennum shared a similar hope.
“We have to have a clear line of accountability," she added. "We need to know who’s responsible for what.”
The final issue to tackle is increasing affordable housing in Bemidji, something that the community’s been struggling with for years.
“I think long-term we know that there is a need for more affordable housing, and we (as the city) have an obligation to move that forward and see how we can help,” Prince said.
Ultimately, Prince shared that he was glad the issue with the structure was found before something more catastrophic occurred.
“It’s traumatic for the whole community, but we did find (the issues). The alternative would have been we didn’t find it, (and) we’ve seen buildings collapse in other states,” Prince said. “I can’t say I’m not glad we found it.”
Now energy needs to be put toward solutions, learning from the experience and working to prevent future crises and improve future responses.
“As a community, we lived through this and we can come out of it stronger and better,” Hennum said. “We can use that momentum to really start building solutions.”
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